20 Low-Paying Jobs That Workers Love

Alison Griswold

Friday

Dec 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 27, 2013 at 12:30 PM

Just because your job pays little doesn't mean it makes you unhappy.

Although happiness at work usually increases with salary, there are notable exceptions to that rule. Some high-paying jobs make employees surprisingly miserable. Other jobs with low pay have extremely satisfied workers.

To determine which low-paying jobs had surprisingly happy workers, we teamed up with CareerBliss, an online jobs database. CareerBliss examined more than 250 jobs to find the biggest outliers on the typical salary-job satisfaction trend line.

The jobs that made the list are positions with low pay that have satisfaction rankings far above what's expected.

For each surprisingly happy job, CareerBliss gave us the job's actual average salary and the "predicted" average salary — what they would expect people in the job to make, based on their job satisfaction. The bliss scores are created from employee reviews of eight factors: work-life balance; relationship with coworkers; work environment; job resources; compensation; growth opportunities; company culture; and daily tasks.

If you want a happy career and don't care about pay, here are a few jobs to consider.

1. Machine operator Actual average salary: $34,000Predicted average salary: $85,646Average bliss score: 3.70Machine operators love their colleagues and bosses and also give high marks to their daily tasks and responsibilities.

2. Assistant general manager Actual average salary: $46,000Predicted average salary: $83,109Average bliss score: 3.64 Assistant general managers give high ratings to coworkers (but not bosses) and say they enjoy their daily work.

3. Warehouse manager Actual average salary: $48,000Predicted average salary: $82,025Average bliss score: 3.74 Coworkers are one of the best parts of the job for warehouse managers, along with the daily work routine.

4. Research assistant Actual average salary: $35,000Predicted average salary: $67,280Average bliss score: 4.11 Research assistants love their bosses and colleagues but also feel happy with the job resources they're given and the company culture.

5. Bank teller Actual average salary: $30,000Predicted average salary: $61,392Average bliss score: 3.36 Bank tellers are most satisfied with their colleagues but give lukewarm ratings to their work environment, job resources, and compensation packages.

6. Operations specialist Actual average salary: $54,000Predicted average salary: $85,689Average bliss score: 3.43 The best part of the job for operations specialists is compensation, followed by their daily work and colleagues.

7. Shift supervisor Actual average salary: $38,000Predicted average salary: $69,439Average bliss score: 3.69 Shift supervisors are happiest with their coworkers and bosses and also gave high marks to their work environment.

8. Teaching assistant Actual average salary: $31,000Predicted average salary: $61,865Average bliss score: 4.13 Teaching assistants report positively on almost every aspect of their jobs, led by their evaluations of bosses and coworkers, company culture, and daily work.

9. Assistant store manager Actual average salary: $39,000Predicted average salary: $68,900Average bliss score: 3.38 Colleagues are the best part of the job for assistant store managers by a significant margin.

11. Graduate research assistant Actual average salary: $30,000Predicted average salary: $59,693Average bliss score: 4.05 For graduate research assistants, the best parts of the job are the people they work with and the way they get to work each day.

12. Assistant manager Actual average salary: $37,000Predicted average salary: $66,182Average bliss score: 3.46 Assistant managers are happiest with their colleagues, followed by their daily work and tasks.

13. Loan processor Actual average salary: $40,000Predicted average salary: $65,715Average bliss score: 3.91 Loan processors give a nearly perfect score to their coworkers and the second-highest score to work environment.

14. Senior analyst Actual average salary: $59,000Predicted average salary: $84,247Average bliss score: 3.76 Senior analysts are happiest with their colleagues and then the type of daily work they do.

15. Production supervisor Actual average salary: $54,000Predicted average salary: $79,073Average bliss score: 3.74 Production supervisors rate their coworkers and daily work equally well in their evaluations.

16. Personal banker Actual average salary: $34,000Predicted average salary: $59,698Average bliss score: 3.58 Personal bankers really like the people they work with and the work environment but are less excited about other factors.

17. Case manager Actual average salary: $41,000Predicted average salary: $65,924Average bliss score: 3.28 Case managers are very happy with their coworkers and neutral on most other satisfaction metrics.

19. Medical assistant Actual average salary: $32,000Predicted average salary: $56,727Average bliss score: 3.65 Coworkers, work environment, and daily assignments are most important happiness-wise to medical assistants.

20. Supervisor Actual average salary: $43,000Predicted average salary: $67,076Average bliss score: 3.53Supervisors of all sorts like their colleagues and daily work but are more ambivalent about growth opportunities.

See Also:

Here's How Elon Musk Can Tell If Job Applicants Are Lying About Their Experience20 High-Paying Jobs That Make Workers Miserable

SEE ALSO: The 25 Happiest Companies In America

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